Welcome, Ellis Morning to my blog today, and enter to win a $20 Amazon gift card below. Be sure to give your opinions in the comments. I love hearing from you.
Harbingers
The Quest Continues To Stop A Killer “Curse!”
Dame Jessamine is a knight errant with a spaceship for a steed, a woman of science in a galaxy rife with superstition. Follow along as she continues her mission for truth within the barony of Nidaros!
A mysterious crop-withering blight spreads through the barony’s soil. The court magicians have blamed two siblings of spawning the crisis through witchcraft. Convinced of their innocence, Jessamine has rescued and now secretly harbors Verahl Naustvik aboard her spaceship. Meanwhile, his sister Thordia flees to the Harbinger, a crashed space station from the distant and more enlightened past.
Approaching the Harbinger is an act punishable by death, but Jessamine won’t let that stand in the way of a second rescue. Thordia, and the Harbinger’s surviving technological secrets, may be Nidaros’ only hope against the blight. Jessamine prepares to embark—only to be betrayed and set upon by vengeful court magicians.
Now, one wrong word or gesture will lead to deadly charges of witchcraft. Jessamine must protect the Naustviks and brave the Harbinger, all while striking a balance between ritual and reason. If she can’t maintain the peace long enough to discover a cure for the blight, the entire barony will starve—unless its far-off masters decide to “restore order” with military action first!
Harbingers is Book Two of the Sword and Starship series of science fiction/fantasy adventure.
Excerpt
Dag held silent. He was surely scowling at me, but I couldn’t see it and didn’t care. With my right arm, I lowered Ormyr to a seat against the rock again. His limbs obeyed, but he seemed absent mentally, eyes glazed over. I learned the hard way that he was still paying attention when his hand darted to the bolt in his thigh. He tore it out with one swift movement.
“Damn it!” I cried. It just figured he wouldn’t listen. This bit of stubbornness might’ve cost him his life. Heart pounding and hands shaking, I dug into my first aid kit for bandages.
“I’m uninjured.” Ormyr rested his head against the rock.
“I don’t need your denial on top of everything else,” I snapped, struggling to rein in my irritation. That, plus the fog and the dizziness? Not good signs, but I couldn’t worry about myself just then. “Dag, turn on that light again. I can’t see too well.”
“Gamla skíta,” Dag spat. “I’m not helping him!”
“No, you’re not. You’re showing him the power the Naustviks gave you.” There. Something to appeal to the kid’s bravado and sate Ormyr’s curiosity about how Dag had come to wield the Shipbuilder relic. But if Ormyr cared about such a thing at the moment, he gave no sign, his gaze remaining detached.
Dag edged over to my makeshift surgical arena. The bright light cut on again, which the boy aimed directly at Ormyr’s eyes at first. The master adept’s only response was to squint.
“Lower, Dag,” I said.
He complied. Eventually.
About the Author
Ellis has always loved staging adventures in her head before going to sleep each night. When she was twelve, she started putting these adventures on paper.
For the next twenty years, she wrote with varying degrees of seriousness, but always as a hobby. In that time, she fell in love with Mark Twain and Kurt Vonnegut, the original Star Trek series, and Mystery Science Theater 3000. Science fiction became her favorite domain to work in, but she also enjoyed reading fantasy, horror, Western, and detective stories, and incorporating their elements into her work. One of her favorite things to do was make people laugh.
Ellis denied being a writer for decades. But then she sold articles to The Daily WTF and a short story to Analog Science Fiction and Fact. After quitting her full-time job to finish her first novel, it was time to own up to writing as her calling. She’s currently an editor at The Daily WTF and having the time of her life penning novels and short stories.
SOCIAL MEDIA LINKS:
Google+: https://plus.google.com/+EllisMorning
Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/EllisMorning
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7871892.Ellis_Morning
LINKS FOR BUYING THE BOOK:
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MZA1BP3
Nook (B&N): http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/harbingers-ellis-morning/1125466299?ean=2940157321758
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/harbingers-2
iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1194116553
Interview
- Tell us a little about yourself?
Hi, and thanks for hosting me! I’ve lived in Arkansas, Texas, Michigan, and upstate New York, but have spent most of my life in Pittsburgh, PA. Growing up, I was focused on school and getting an IT-related job, and had many little creative side-outlets that I always thought would be nothing more than hobbies. Now, everything’s turned on its head: I write full-time and have left the rat race comfortably in my rear-view mirror! Novels consume the majority of my attention these days. I also write and edit for The Daily WTF (www.thedailywtf.com), a humor website dedicated to sharing the horrors of IT work. I’m married, and my husband and I have one dear little cat/mischief-maker.
- Could you tell us a bit about your most recent book?
Harbingers is Book 2 in the Sword and Starship series. It follows the adventures of Dame Jessamine, a galaxy-faring knight errant in a universe where superstition is rampant, but magic doesn’t actually exist (like ours!). She’s on a quest to save a barony and its people from a crop malady that’s been blamed on a “witch’s curse” when it’s actually anything but. Meanwhile, the science and reason she relies on can get her in trouble with the authorities if she’s not careful!
Book 1, Blood’s Force (http://www.amazon.com/dp/B015TUD5BG), offers mystery and investigation. Harbingers has more payoff. There’s still plenty of adventure left over for Book 3, which I’m working on right now.
- If you could have dinner (and dessert) with any fictional character who would it be and why?
Probably the second Doctor from Doctor Who, played by Patrick Troughton. He’s always been my favorite for seeming like a fool, when in fact he’s the smartest man in the room. He exudes an energy and charisma that not only made his character fun to watch, but also kept Doctor Who alive. Think about it: if he’d sucked, Doctor Who would’ve never survived past the 1960s!
- What is the biggest surprise that you experienced after becoming a writer?
That the novel is a completely different beast from the short story and requires a lot more planning and attention to detail. I didn’t start out as a plotter, but I’ve become one out of necessity.
- What is your favorite writing tip or quote?
Here are two, from my favorite writers:
“When I used to teach creative writing, I would tell the students to make their characters want something right away—even if it’s only a glass of water. Characters paralyzed by the meaningless of modern life still have to drink water from time to time.” – Kurt Vonnegut
“Substitute ‘damn’ every time you’re inclined to write ‘very;’ your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.” – Mark Twain
- Tell us a little about your plans for the future. Do you have any other books in the works?
I intend to remain focused on writing novels. I’d like to close out Sword and Starship before starting anything else. Book 3 is in the works right now, and I’m not sure yet how many books there will ultimately be. I’ll keep telling the story until it’s told!
Occasionally, I take a break to write short stories as ideas strike. I give a free collection of short stories to everyone who joins my mailing list: http://eepurl.com/K7D1L
the desperate queen forges a risky alliance with the ruthless and cunning Mage Corey. Determined to defend her son’s claim to the throne of the Mage King, Eolyn prepares for her last and greatest battle, this time against her own sisters in magic.
where she is part of the biology faculty at Avila University. An ecologist by vocation, Karin has wandered forests and wildlands all her life. Her pastimes include camping, hiking, music, and flamenco dance. In addition to THE SILVER WEB trilogy, Karin has published short stories in World Jumping, Zahir, Adventures for the Average Woman, and 69 Flavors of Paranoia. She is a recipient of the Spring 2011 Andrews Forest Writer’s Residency.
When Sean Frazier was growing up, he never really paid attention to the written word. It wasn’t necessarily something he enjoyed at the time. Once he graduated college, however, the spark ignited and he decided to write something and try to get it published.
Exiled from his homeland, Cor’il Silvermoon was left to roam without direction. Bestowed with unimaginable power by the awakening Threads, he struggles to understand his purpose.
Badass Woman #1– I was born in 1967 and grew up in the 70s and 80s, so I wasn’t exactly inundated with strong, powerful female role models on Television. But Linda Carter as Wonder Woman comes on to the scene in 1975 and gave me a different view of women. She may hide her identity in that of a secretary, but she’s an Amazonian princess. In the Amazon, the women rule, and they never bow to male authority. Wonder Woman undoes her hair and twirls around, and she is a superhero with a magical golden lasso and bracelets which can deflect bullets. She fights with superhuman strength and ability and never needs to be rescued. As the theme song stated, “All the world is waiting for you, and the power you possess.” Wonder Woman taught me that women can be strong.
Badass Woman #5: Karrin Murphy from Jim Butcher’s The Dresden Files. I loved Karrin Murphy from the moment I first met her racing Dresden to the door so that he won’t open it for her. I hate men opening the door for me. Not only does she stand up for herself as a woman, but she’s intelligent and completely badass. She can handle any weapon and hold her own in a fight. She’s loyal, and Butcher resists turning her into Dresden’s girl friend. She will only have men on her own terms.
Although I couldn’t have articulated it at such a young age, the book taught me to indulge my imagination. Max is sent to his room, but rather than pouting or being bored, he has a forest grow around him until it completely overtakes the space. He gets on a boat and voyages to land of beasts with scaly legs, horns on their noses, and rooster beaks. With these creatures, he instigates a “wild rumpus” that begins with stomping and chanting under the moonlight and continues with swinging from trees in the light of day. To me, Max and the Wild Things’ wild rumpus seemed the pinnacle of excitement. Sendak’s book showed me that the imagination is a wonderful place where the strangest and most delightful things can happen at any moment and in any place.
The book also nurtured the belief that this flight into the unknown is nothing for a girl to fear because she can return to normality whenever she pleases. When Max tires of the wild rumpus, he gets on his boat and sail back to his own room where his supper, a symbol of his mother’s love, is waiting for him. I learned that we can travel to the farthest reaches of the world and back again before our supper gets cold.
